As sugarcane producers urged the government to import sugar to avoid supply shortages in the country, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) said that they agency is currently studying its importation plans.
In a briefing, SRA administrator Pablo Azcona said they must identify the sugar stock’s trigger points before seeking imports, stating that they will be based on the study of the actual demand or withdrawals, as per historical data.
“We have a [buffer stock] figure of 185 thousand to 200 thousand that we should maintain… When we need to import at the moment is still undergoing a study, if the demand is maintained, dropping, or increasing” Azcona said.
According to the SRA, the spike in demand for refined sugar was attributed to the early off-milling season that caused consumers to stock up on sugar around January to August.
In case the three-month supply of buffer stock drops, Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel, Jr., along with the SRA decided that this would be the right time to begin sugar importation.
“It’s our decision to make it three months because it takes about one month to ship [sugar] from Thailand to the Philippines and other countries and get it released from customs and then inspected.” Azcona elaborated.
Additionally, the buffer stock being given 3 months would make way for the off-milling season which happens around June to August. In this instance, the sugar admin said that they are initially looking at bringing in refined imports, but there have been suggestions coming from the refiners to seek raw sugar as well.
The SRA admin hopes to evade another sugar crisis similar to the production decline in 2022. Sugar outputs dropped to an unusual low because of the damages caused by Typhoon Odette in Negros Occidental, the Philippines’ largest sugar-producing zone.
Earlier, the United Sugar Producers Federation (UNIFED) urged the government to import around 200,000 metric tons (MT) supply because of the severe El Niño damage in Negros’ sugarcane plantations.
“As of now, we have stable stock and price as well as retail. We’re just maintaining this stability,” he emphasized.
“We’re preventing the drop in supply to a level that would insecure the retail market. We want to avoid the P120 to P130 retail price since our sugarcane farmers are retail consumers, [and] we buy sugar from the retail market… They all need stability so that farmgate and retail prices don’t drop or hike. There is a need for balance.”
He further explained that stabilizing the sugar supply is needed since the industrial sector must have a secure sugar stock to run their factories.